title: The Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery version B: normative values with age, education and gender corrections in an Italian population.
abstract: The Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) of Neuropsychological Tests is one of the most widely used instruments to assess cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis patients. However, to date, normative data for the Italian population are available only for the version A, which limits the use of the battery in longitudinal evaluations. We administered the BRB version B to 132 healthy subjects to obtain normative values taking into account the influences of demographic factors on the test scores and calculating corrections for these relevant factors (age, gender and education). Higher age and educational level were associated with better performance on all the tests. The World List Generation was also influenced by gender, since women performed better than men. Moreover, some tests of the version B seem to be easier than those of version A. Our data can improve the applicability of the BRB for both clinical and research purposes in longitudinal assessments.
authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla, 3, 50134, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Goretti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Patti
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cilia
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mattioli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stampatori
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scarpazza
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Amato
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Portaccio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D012016:Reference Values